SURVEY: Libertarians’ Thoughts On The Libertarian Party

This poll was conducted by 122 of currently 312 members of the Libertarian Vindicator Polling Committee, a group that aims to have 10 libertarians, both party members and non-party members, from each state, including the District of Columbia, for a total of 510 members that seeks to create representative data of libertarians across the United States. The poll was conducted using polldaddy.com.

This poll was designed to ask libertarians what their opinions were of the Libertarian Party, it’s leadership and the future of the party moving forward. Some interesting things occurred when the results of this survey were completed.

Libertarians are definitely a very optimistic group and approve of much of what the Party has done recently. Faith in the party was demonstrated due to 65% of respondents believing the party has progressed, 79% believe that it is advancing liberty and 88% believe the Party’s platform is consistent with libertarian ideals.

The respondents also demonstrated that libertarians had overall positive views of Johnson/Weld campaign with 70% calling it successful to some degree. Social media use, media coverage and fundraising were the perceived strong suits of the campaign, while many thought the message consistency and delivery were lacking.

Most libertarians believe that a Libertarian congressmen, governor and president will be elected in the next 20 years, with the congressmen being the position that libertarians have the most faith will have a Libertarian in office.

Interestingly, 60% of respondents believe that the Party should embrace an open-tent style of membership, but around 43% believe the party has been infiltrated by right and left-leaning ideologies, 60% believe Libertarian Socialists should not be involved in the party and 73% believe those who identify as “Alt-Right” shouldn’t be involved either. This seems to be a contradiction to the majority opinion of embracing an open-tent membership model. More clarification of this aspect could provide better insight into these opinions.

The abortion plank is the most popular plank of the Libertarian Party Platform that respondents felt needed to removed or revised.

Full results of the survey can be found below:

Are you a member of the Libertarian Party?

Yes, 75%

No, 25%

In your opinion, has the party progressed or regressed?

Progressed slightly, 46%

Progressed greatly, 19%

Regressed slightly,16%

No progress/ regression, 14%

Regressed greatly, 6%

Do you believe the Libertarian Party is advancing liberty?

Yes, 79%

No, 14%

No opinion, 7%

Do you believe the Party is exhibiting the Non-aggression principle?

Yes, 75%

No, 12%

No opinion, 12%

Do you believe the members of the Libertarian Party are libertarian?

Yes, 74%

No, 21%

No opinion, 5%

Do you believe the leadership of the Libertarian Party are libertarian?

Yes, 66%

No, 17%

No opinion, 16%

How consistent with libertarian ideals do you feel is the Libertarian Party Platform?

Very consistent, 55%

Slightly consistent, 33%

Slightly inconsistent, 7%

Neither consistent or inconsistent, 5%

Very inconsistent, 1%

Is there anything you would add to the Party’s platform

No, 60.6%

Remove abortion plank, 5.7%

Clarification/ consistency of issues, 4%

Constitutionalism/ adaptation, 2.5%

Personal responsibility, 2.5%

Secure borders, 1.6%

Yes, 1.6%

Outreach emphasis, 1.6%

Land scarcity, 0.8%

Rent is theft, 0.8%

Remove NAP, 0.8%

Decriminalize victimless crimes, 0.8%

Better mechanization to reign in Vice chairs, 0.8%

More voters emphasis, 0.8%

Getting rid of Ancoms, 0.8%

Non-aggression against Christians, 0.8%

Free trade, 0.8%

Veterans, 0.8%

Religious liberty, 0.8%

Support intellectual property, 0.8%

Individualism, 0.8%

Election reform, 0.8%

Bombast, 0.8%

Food choice, 0.8%

Is there anything you would remove from the Party’s platform?

No, 39%

No response, 19%

Abortion plank, 12%

Open borders, 4%

NAP, 1.6%

Death penalty, 1.6%

Yes, 0.8%

“Cult of the omnipotent state”, 0.8%

Plank 2.4, 0.8%

Arvin, 0.8%

Make platform smaller, 0.8%

Anti-law enforcement rhetoric, 0.8%

Anti-military rhetoric, 0.8%

Most of it, 0.8%

Compromising verbiage, 0.8%

Probably, 0.8%

Section 2, 0.8%

Gun control, 0.8%

Do you feel the party has been infiltrated by leftists/ left-leaning ideologies?

Yes, 43%

No, 40%

No opinion, 17%

Do you feel the party has been infiltrated by rightists/ right-leaning ideologies?

Yes, 44%

No, 43%

No opinion, 13%

Do you feel the party should embrace an “open tent” style of membership?

Yes, 60%

No, 21%

No opinion, 19%

Do you believe that Libertarian Socialists should be involved in the Party?

No, 60%

Yes, 21%

No opinion, 19%

Do you believe that members who identify as “Alt-Right” should be involved in the Party?

No, 73%

Yes, 18%

No opinion, 9%

Do you believe the Libertarian Party should support Antifa?

No, 86%

Yes, 11%

No opinion, 2%

How successful do you feel was the Johnson/Weld campaign?

Slightly successful, 53%

Very successful, 17%

Very unsuccessful, 11%

Neither successful or unsuccessful, 9%

Slightly unsuccessful, 9%

What aspects of the Johnson/Weld campaign did you feel were most successful?

Social media presence, 27%

Media coverage, 20%

Fundraising, 14%

Professionalism, 12%

Message consistency, 11%

Message delivery, 8%

Nothing was successful, 4%

Other

Vote total/ voter turnout

Resume

Ballot access/ major party status for state parties

Party growth

What aspects of the Johnson/Weld campaign did you feel were least successful?

Message delivery, 25%

Message consistency, 20%

Professionalism, 20%

Media coverage, 19%

Fundraising, 7%

Social media presence, 4%

Other

Bill Weld

Emphasis on attacking Trump

Views on religion

Ability to fix mistakes on media

Nothing was unsuccessful, 0.01%

Did you vote for Johnson/Weld in the 2016 election?

Yes, 89%

No, 11%

If you did not vote Johnson/Weld, who did you vote for?

N/A, 90%

Donald Trump, 5%

Other, 4%

Not registered to vote

Austin Petersen

Independent Libertarian candidate

Hillary Clinton, 1%

Jill Stein, 0%

Darrell Castle, 0%

Do you believe a Libertarian President will be elected in 10 years?

No, 82%

Yes, 18%

Do you believe a Libertarian President will be elected in 20 years?

Yes, 68%

No, 32%

Do you believe a Libertarian President will be elected in 30 years?

Yes, 81%

No, 19%

Do you believe a Libertarian congressman/woman will be elected in 10 years?

Yes, 86%

No, 14%

Do you believe a Libertarian congressman/woman will be elected in 20 years?

Yes, 96%

No, 4%

Do you believe a Libertarian congressman/woman will be elected in 30 years?

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Author: Luke Henderson

Since joining the Libertarian Party in 2016 (after discovering Gary Johnson as a disaffected Bernie Sanders supporter), Luke Henderson has been active in the liberty movement through journalism, and political activism.
At the beginning of 2017, Luke had his first piece of writing published by Being Libertarian and quickly became a contributor to the libertarian news site, The Libertarian Vindicator. Through the Vindicator, Luke discovered his passion for addressing critics of the philosophy and bringing together different factions of liberty lovers which compelled him to become an editor for The Libertarian Coalition, a forum dedicated to an open-minded discussion of libertarian ideas from all walks.
After many guest contributions to Being Libertarian, Luke was asked to join the website as a contributor, where he writes his column Scoring For Liberty, which discusses sports, politics, and economics from a libertarian lens, and his Educator series that seeks to strengthen libertarian’s understanding of educational techniques and policy to better arguments against public education.
Luke is one of the District 1 Executive Committeemen for the Missouri Libertarian party, and the founder of the Missouri Chapter of the Libertarian Positivity Caucus. Outside of politics, Luke is a paraprofessional for the Special School District of St. Louis, a musician, composer, and a loving husband and father.
View all posts by Luke Henderson